TROY -- Brad Lewis was very unabashed about how his latest home renewal project was just a means for him to supplement his income, but it also allows him to give his staff some work during the off season.

Lewis purchased the house at 51 Campbell Ave. in November 2012 for $1,000 through a blind city auction with plans of renting it out the two apartments. He hopes to have the renovations completed, and to be renting the apartments out, by mid-March.

At the time of the auction, the home was owned but Lewis said the person was a few years behind on their taxes. There was a large amount of garbage to be cleared out and portions of the wood holding the house together were rotting due to a leaking roof and leaks in other areas of the house. One portion of the house even had to be raised up six inches, which Lewis said he did by placing concrete down and layered bricks up till the house was level.

Most of what makes up the house was a former addition. Lewis said the back part of the house appeared to be a former porch. His plan was to turn it into a bedroom, and knocking down the walls of the other additions to what he was calling the kitchen area to provide more open space.

Lewis has also replaced all of the piping with PEX tubing and is installing a new high-efficiency furnace. He also said they will move on to putting new siding, installing the insulation and also put in new windows with argon gas. The crew also put in new wiring as he said everything was previously spliced together.

Lewis, owner of Brad Lewis Lawn Care & Masonry Repair, said he had done similar work on the house he currently lives in, located on Grant Avenue. The projects have given his employees work to do during the winter seasons and has kept them from having to go on unemployment and search for other work.

"I don't want any of the guys on unemployment," Lewis said. "They do that and then they quit. Then I have to get new guys and retrain."

Keeping a building from becoming vacant and putting it back on the tax rolls is an added bonus for Lewis, as he said he saw this project as more of a lucrative one as opposed to a thoughtful one.

"It's not as benevolent as it might seem," Lewis said. "But hey, I like the idea I'm helping."

The project will not be a half-baked one as Lewis had gutted the entire house from the bottom up. He said instead of finding out the things wrong with the house after the fact, he has stripped it completely and is fixing all of the problems now.

"The thing with landlords is they have to fix things when things break," Lewis said, regarding the piping system and electricity. "I'm doing everything correctly. I'm not cutting corners."